We’re down to crunch time folks….the final four weeks before one of the most important elections in the history of our country. We LOOK poised to take the House and if all the cards fall right, possibly gain a slim majority or a tie in the Senate, but so much depends on what happens NOW….and not the least of it is cold hard cash. Campaigns are looking at their campaign coffers — how much they have on hand, and where and how they need to spend it. And if you have been THINKING about donating, or perhaps you have already donated but are at least thinking about digging deep into your pockets for a little bit more…..NOW is the time to do it.
I just spent a little time making a total of eight modest donations to eight different candidates across the country, and here’s my list in no particular order:
Iowa 3 Cindy Axne
Florida 26 Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Texas 23 Gina Ortiz Jones
CA 28 Harley Rouda
Maine 2 Jared Golden
CA 22 Andrew Janz
GA Gov Stacey Abrams
PA 1 Scott Wallace
How did I go about picking them?….where I thought it would do the most good in my opinion: Janz, for example, is a no brainer. He has been waging a tough fight against one of the worst slimeballs in the House, Devin Nunes and he has been doing it without much help from the Democratic Party which viewed spending money in his district as not a good investment given its very very Republican leanings. But Janz has been whittling away, aided in large part by a flood of small donations like mine and noting that for a Congressman, Nunes hasn’t spent much time in his district, never holds constituent meetings and, it appears, is not the California rancher he claims to be
Now Janz has earned the endorsement of the Fresno Bee and things are tightening. Yes it is still a long shot, but imagine the sheer “goodiness” of waking up Wednesday morning to discover Mr. Nunes’ political career has been gutted.
Many of my other choices were based on research — looking for very close races where Democrats have a good chance of prevailing if the political winds keep shifting our way. Remember, the more seats we take in the House the better in so many ways. The difference between just a takeover and a TAKEOVER means we need to win as many of those really close races as we can and create coattails that also sweep in Senators, Governors and legislators.
My choices may not be yours. Take a little time to do your own research. Maybe you want to focus just on your own state or getting rid of a particularly sleazy member of the GOP. Maybe it is not eight….it is just two. Maybe you can’t give much, but you can give something….even if it is only $5. EVERY BIT HELPS.
I used ActBlue and went to their online directory of candidates after I did my research. In each case, I made my contribution directly to the candidate’s campaign, using ActBlue. I did not add a tip with each contribution, but I will also make a small contribution to ActBlue itself for the good work it does in marshaling small donations for good causes and candidates nationwide.
If you have seen stories about how ActBlue is shattering all time records for the volume of small donations it is processing, shout YAY….
but then be sure you sit down and ADD to it...even if you already gave. EVERY dollar is critical NOW when it can do the most good. Every dollar helps with advertising, GOTV, travel, expenses and winning.
The GOP has always relied on deep pocketed dark money sources to fund their success. Let them keep donating, but note that the GOP of late, has been deciding to back out of races where they see Democratic candidates are (a) doing well in the polls and (b) getting hammered by the volume of Democratic SMALL donations. This has happened in PA for Keith Rothfus against Conor Lamb and in VA where incumbent Barbara Comstock has been abandoned by her party. Let’s give so much money now that we:
- Crush the phony “surge in GOP enthusiasm” meme the Republicans are desperately trying to fuel with claims of mob rule by demonstrating clearly that their latest antics have just made our resistance even stronger and we’re showing it with our wallets.
- And discourage those major GOP big money donors from throwing “good money” after bad in the closing weeks, and maybe even convince them that in 2020 the GOP is so discredited that they need to reconsider giving at all. As Max Boot has said, the only way we can restore democracy is first gutting the GOP repeatedly until it regains its sanity and cutting off the funding spigots is a good place to start.
Go do it now...pick your candidates, give them donations, pass this along to your friends and neighbors.
t is easy to complain. Now is the time to give...money…...and time.
Vote as if your nation depends on it because never before in our history has this been so true.